


INTERLUDE: Dutiful Daughter

by Koren M (CyberMathWitch)



Series: Heavy In Your Arms [3]
Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, F/M, Soul Bond, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-17
Updated: 2012-10-17
Packaged: 2017-11-16 12:56:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/539663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyberMathWitch/pseuds/Koren%20M
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>They'd instilled in her a love of the Motherland, and the Leader, and a sense of duty...</i>  Interlude #2 for Heavy in Your Arms.</p><p>This was originally published between chapters 5 & 6 of Heavy in Your Arms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	INTERLUDE: Dutiful Daughter

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Anuna and SweetWaterSong for looking this over. :)
> 
> Apparently, I'm telling two stories at once. Clint and Natasha's, but also Fury and Jin Mei's. IDEK.

It hadn't been a difficult mission. In fact, it had been exactly what she'd been trained to do. They'd groomed her for this practically from the cradle, instilled in her a love of the Motherland, and the Leader, a sense of duty to her family, not just of blood, but of nationality. They were the one lone bastion of sanity and Right in an otherwise misguided world and it was her job to help preserve that. 

She loved her country.

She loved her family, even if she didn't see them more than a handful of times.

Leaving was as terrifying as it was exhilarating, but she played her role to the hilt. North became South, Lee Min became Jin Mei, and after a few years at a New York university she was accepted as a trainee with SHIELD. 

*****

She met him ten years in. By then, she was a full-fledged agent with a dozen commendations under her belt, and it had been four years since she'd had any communication from her real superiors. That was perfectly on schedule.

Nick was not. 

Mei had never been anti-social, she'd gone out with coworkers and even formed several good, if not terribly close friendships. She'd even once dated a young man she met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art during her off duty hours. He'd been sweet and sexy, and her fondness for him was entirely genuine even if the name and the backstory she'd given him were not. (But then, she hadn't been able to give him her SHIELD cover, either, so what did it matter?) When he'd begun dropping hints about something more permanent she'd very gently broken it off and had even nudged him in the direction of a shy but pleasant girl from the secretarial department who'd been a far better match for him.

But Nick? He was something else entirely.

Everything she knew about bonding had come from a combination of movies and conversations with her friends at University. It wasn't talked about at home, and she hadn't considered it might happen to her. But what else could it be? He'd brushed up against her during a training exercise and it had been all either of them could do to hold off until they were released for the evening. By some unspoken agreement he'd met her at the gym doors and they'd barely managed to get to his quarters before they lost any major articles of clothing. 

It had been a passion and a fever, and she'd been sure it would burn its course and then leave her with her senses. The pressing _Need_ had gone away, but the attachment had remained, because once you really _saw_ someone? You couldn't undo that. It never left, it could not be unlearned.

But it might be misinterpreted.

He knew she had some kind of darkness, but to his credit he didn't pry. She, for her part, saw how insecure he really felt, not in himself but his surroundings, always fighting, never ceasing - he saw the world as a constant struggle and somehow that made him great.

*****

It was two years after that, while they were on a mission in Kuala Lumpur, that she received her new directives, the message she'd been waiting for. 

Drop point coordinates, encryption keys, everything she would need to start submitting the information she'd been amassing all this time. A gentle but pointed reminder that she was who she was and where she was for a greater purpose than simply her love. Telling him wasn't even an idle speculation in her mind, she knew in his way he was as fiercely loyal to his organization and ideals as she was to her country. So she began her careful, precise work. If he noticed that she stole from their bed sometimes or didn't show up for hours after her duty shift, well he believed her excuses, that she'd gone for a run, or down to the gym, or to find a corner to read for awhile. 

It twisted at her heart sometimes that she couldn't tell him the truth, but it was as it was and she let it lie.

She didn't miss the drop date on purpose. Her team was pinned down in Dhaka for three days while they tried to infiltrate an nuclear arms sale. When she transmitted the information, two days and three hours late, the message she received was swift and to the point. Photos showing her and Nick were followed by one of her sister holding the body of a little girl, pleading with the man holding a gun to her head.

_Don't forget where your loyalties lie._

*****

For the first time, she questioned. She searched her soul, replayed memories of her life in her mind's eye to try and understand what she had been shown.

Blind patriotism or naivete: she wasn't sure which one she'd suffered from more. 

She hadn't doubted that SHIELD was a threat, she'd seen what they were capable of and had been capable of it herself. She'd worked on missions that had opposed her own government and they'd only supported her belief that what she did was right. 

The photo haunted her, as it was supposed to. She wondered if they realized how it made her question her loyalties, or if they even cared?

*****

Their stake out ran long, and the debrief ran longer. Only years of training kept her expression mild while she watched the hands on the clock ticking ever forward. It was too long and too late, and she had too clear a picture of her sister in her mind when she left HQ. She didn't stop to let Nick know she'd be out, that she'd miss their dinner plans, and wasn't paying close enough attention to realize he followed her when she left.

Maybe he'd sensed her agitation and was worried about her. Maybe he caught a glimpse of her heading down for a car, and curiosity got the better of him. It didn't matter, in the end. She was sloppy and in the end it brought her entire world crashing down.


End file.
